Wilderness Within World Heritage: ,

Les Molloy Murray Reedy

Abstract—The Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Area, 2.6 million passing them to the management of the Department of hectares (6,424,600 acres) of mountains, glaciers, forests, and fiords, Conservation, which already managed the primarily moun- contains New Zealand’s main wilderness resource. The Department tainous national parks. Soon after, in December 1991, the of Conservation’s comprehensive Visitor Strategy has been used to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orga- manage visitors to the widely differing sites within the World nization (UNESCO)—without hesitation—designated this Heritage Area system. Most management effort is focused on the 2.6 million hectare wilderness (an extraordinary 10 percent increasing number of visitors who require access and facilities in the of the total area of New Zealand) as the “Te Wahipounamu frontcountry, and the large group of discerning backcountry users (South-West NZ) World Heritage Area.” who use the “Great Walks.” Four wilderness areas, making up 10 The name “Te Wahipounamu” is an ancient Maori term for percent of the World Heritage Area, are strictly managed for the whole area, meaning “The Place of the Greenstone.” wilderness recreation, and there are proposals to designate two Pounamu, or “greenstone,”is a nephrite found in isolated additional areas for wilderness users.Unresolved management is- lenses along the path of the great Alpine Fault; pounamu is sues are: the need for more marine conservation, the need for better highly prized for its beauty and utility by the indigenous control of introduced animal pests, and the disruption of natural people, the Maori, who traveled into the interior of the quiet by tourist flights. wilderness to gather this “taonga” (treasure). Te Wahipounamu has four National Parks—, Mount Aspiring, Mount Cook, and Westland—as its corner- stones. These mountainous limbs are skirted by the lowland The Southwest of New Zealand’s is one of the rainforests of Waitutu and South Westland (fig. 1). great wildernesses of the Southern Hemisphere. It is a remote, unoccupied landscape, both forbidding and beauti- ful. It contains New Zealand’s most outstanding wild land- scapes—the fiords, the Southern Alps, the great glaciers, and the turbulent rivers descending to the vast temperate rainforests of the West Coast, and the wide open spaces of the Eastern tussock grasslands and glacial lakes in the rainshadow of the Alps. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, bitter resource controver- sies raged throughout the Southwest, with wilderness advo- cates opposing: • Raising of Lake in for hydroelectricity. • Mining of asbestos in the Red Hills ultramafic area. • Formation of a 120 km tourist road between Haast and . • Nonsustainable logging of the magnificent Rimu and Kahikatea Forests of the river terraces and moraines of South Westland. After 2 decades of intense resource controversy, the New Zealand government unequivocally opted for conservation by reserving the lowland rainforests of South Westland,

In: Watson, Alan E.; Aplet, Greg H.; Hendee, John C., comps. 2000. Personal, societal, and ecological values of wilderness: Sixth World Wilder- ness Congress proceedings on research, management, and allocation, volume II; 1998 October 24–29; Bangalore, India. Proc. RMRS-P-14. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. Les Molloy, Heritage Works, P.O. Box 183, Wellington, New Zealand, e-mail: [email protected]. Murray Reedy, West Coast Conservancy, De- partment of Conservation, Private Bag 701, Hokitika, New Zealand, e-mail: [email protected]. Figure 1—National Parks within Te Wahipounamu South-West New Zealand World Heritage Area.

162 USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000 The main tourist attractions of the South Island lie within the World Heritage Area: • Milford Sound and the • Lake and the • The and Mount Aspiring • Mount Cook (Aoraki) and the Tasman Glacier • The Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers A measure of the integrity and “outstanding universal value” of the South-West is the recognition by UNESCO that it meets all four criteria for World Heritage status by:

I…containing major features of earth’s geological history, especially the uplift of mountains along a plate boundary and the development of glacial and marine terrace land forms; II…exhibiting significant on-going evolution of alpine herbfield, forest and wetland habitats since the last glacia- tion; III…having many areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance; and IV…containing some of the most important habitats for the conservation of the biodiversity of ancient Gondwana.

Visitors Within the World Heritage ______

Te Wahipounamu is an extremely robust landscape, defy- ing past human attempts at settlement. The only residents are temporary, mainly associated with tourism (regulated by the Department of Conservation) or fishing in the fiords.

There are two main road corridors into and through the Les Molloy wilderness—the Haast Highway and the Milford Highway, each of them a narrow ribbon through the mountain passes, Figure 2—Lake Nevernever lies in the heart of the mountainous Pembroke Wilderness Area in Fiordland valleys, and forested coastal plain, each vulnerable to earth- National Park. quake, rockfall, avalanche, and flooding in this most dy- namic of landscapes. A network of 10 visitor centres and many interpreted nature walks are dispersed along these “Heritage Highway” corridors (or “aranui”), catering to visi- tors who want to learn more about the biodiversity and to the wilderness areas for recreational or commercial pur- history of the landscape without having to venture far from poses is not allowed, although the Department of Conserva- the road (Molloy 1992). tion periodically sanctions aerial hunting of wild introduced animals, which are serious pests because of their detrimen- tal impacts on the native flora and fauna. Wilderness Areas The wilderness areas are well buffered by a natural landscape that does have a degree of visitor facilities and At the other extreme, there are four wilderness areas (wild services. Overall, Te Wahipounamu provides recreational areas managed strictly in terms of the New Zealand Wilder- and educational experiences for a wide range of visitors. The ness Policy) within the World Heritage site: way in which an acceptable level of visitor use has been • Hooker-Landsborough (41,000 ha) planned for, within such a natural World Heritage Area of • Olivine (80,000 ha) high biodiversity and wilderness conservation value, is • Pembroke (18,000 ha) (fig. 2) worth explaining more fully. • Glaisnock (125,000 ha) These areas are depicted in figure 3 in relation to the main Planning Framework for Wilderness visitor centers and Heritage Highways. The four areas are dispersed throughout the World Heritage Area and, to- in Te Wahipounamu ______gether, add up to 10 percent of the total area. As wilderness The planning framework for the management of the wil- areas, they are managed as places where visitors enter “on derness resource of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage nature’s terms.” There are no visitor facilities such as roads, Area is illustrated in figure 4. It spans national, regional, huts, and bridges; there are not even any tracks. Air access and local communities of interest and levels of

USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000 163 Legislation

World Heritage Area

Visitor Strategy

Four conservation management strategies

Management plans for:

Wilderness policy

Figure 4—Framework for wilderness management. Figure 3—Conservation Visitor Centres and access to Te Wahipounamu South-West New Zealand World Heritage Area. Wilderness-based visitors Facilities-based visitors

Wilderness Developed decisionmaking. There are four main planning entities: areas visitor sites legislation, visitor strategy, conservation management strat- egies, and management plans.

Remoteness- Backcountry Backcountry Day visitors Overnighters Short-stop Legislation seekers adventurers comfort-seekers travelers

In New Zealand, there is no specific legislation for World Heritage Area management. The New Zealand conservation V i s i t o r g r o u p s legislative provisions are well developed so that Te Wahipounamu, like other protected areas, is conserved through the provisions of the Conservation Act, National Figure 5—Recreational opportunities for visitor groups. Parks Act, and Reserves Act. Each of these pieces of legisla- tion empowers the designation of Wilderness Areas.

• Short-stop travelers Visitor Strategy • Overnighters • Day visitors The Department of Conservation manages all visitor sites • Backcountry comfort-seekers within the World Heritage Area in terms of its Visitor • Backcountry adventurers Strategy (Department of Conservation 1996). The strategy • Remoteness-seekers divides all visitors into seven different visitor groups (fig. 5). The Department is committed to providing quality recre- The seventh category, “thrill-seekers,” such as white wa- ational opportunities, and where appropriate, it also pro- ter rafting and parapenting, may not take place within vides facilities within Te Wahipounamu for six of these wilderness areas unless the activity complies with the strict visitor groups: conditions of the wilderness policy.

164 USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000 Conservation Management Strategies The Department of Conservation has developed a compre- hensive Visitor Asset Management Program to delineate all These statutory documents are the regional conservation visitor sites with facilities (3,700 nationwide) and inventory statements. They have been established for each adminis- the 15,300 structures used by the different visitor groups to trative region of the Department of Conservation following these sites. This program has been established to provide wide-ranging public consultation. They outline the strategic quality assurance across the whole spectrum of sites that priorities and key sites for biodiversity conservation and visitors use. Nationally, there are a total of 1,280 BCA and visitor recreation (including wilderness areas). Integrated BCC sites in the backcountry. Relatively few are provided conservation management for Te Wahipounamu is achieved specifically for BCC’s (132); however, these sites are expen- by four of these Conservation Management Strategies sive to operate and a significant cost against the total visitor because the World Heritage Area spans the contiguous asset. Conversely, many structures on BCA sites are failing conservancies of West Coast, Canterbury, Otago, and the standards now set by the quality assurance program. Southland (Reedy and Doole 1992). The dilemma of this situation is compounded by the need for the Department of Conservation to invest in facilities and opportunities that return the best outcomes for both conser- Management Plans vation and visitors. As the new quality assurance program Management plans are place-based statutory manage- begins to bite, the quantum of facilities available to visitors ment prescriptions for specific sites within Te Wahipounamu, will shrink, causing more competition for space and height- where particular conservation objectives need to be clearly ening the tensions between BCA and BCC groups. set out. Each National Park has a management plan. Within Te Wahipounamu, the contrast between the two types of backcountry visitor group sites is even more acute because the BCC sites are the most popular with overseas Sites Available to Different Visitor visitors. Virtually all the BCC sites are high priority Great Walks (such as Milford, Routeburn, and Kepler Tracks), Groups ______while the bulk of the BCA sites are frequented by signifi- The inverse relationship between the “size” of the sites cantly fewer visitors who are mostly New Zealanders. The available to the different visitor groups and the “number” of likely outcome, as these BCA facilities fail to meet quality visitors in each group is illustrated in figure 5. The three assurance standards over time, is that large sections of Te groups that use the frontcountry are numerically the larg- Wahipounamu will become “de facto” wilderness areas— est; they are the main users of campsites, picnic areas, and joining the four “de jure” wilderness areas to provide a vast short walks along the heritage highways. These visitors resource of wildland. have different needs and expectations than visitors who use The eventual reduction in BCA sites, therefore, will ben- the backcountry, and the Department of Conservation has efit the numerically smallest backcountry visitor group, the invested heavily in quality assurance programs designed to “remoteness-seekers,” who are not facility-dependent (fig. ensure that a suitable standard and range of facilities is 5). Currently, remoteness-seekers are remarkably well pro- available for each user group. Overall, frontcountry visitors vided for in Te Wahipounamu, and they will eventually have are confined to highway corridors where impacts are approximately 2 million hectares of wilderness (including localized. the four designated wilderness areas) available to them for Visitors who use the backcountry of Te Wahipounamu fall wilderness recreation in the world heritage area. However, into two main groups—those who desire facilities and those members of this group have a valid claim in their assertion who desire wilderness. There are two groups of visitors who that the Department of Conservation and the New Zealand desire facilities—the “backcountry adventurer” (BCA) and Conservation Authority have been slow to implement the the “backcountry comfort-seeker” (BCC). The characteris- recommendations of the 1981 Wilderness Conference (Molloy tics of BCA and BCC visitors are similar in only one respect, 1983) and the government’s Wilderness Advisory Group for that of the requirement for huts, tracks, and bridges to two more gazetted wilderness areas within Te Wahipounamu. facilitate access and enjoyment. These two proposed areas lie at the extreme ends of the In the past 10 years or so, some BCC sites within Te World Heritage Area—Adams, based on the large névés of Wahipounamu have become a mecca for overseas backpack- the Gardens of Eden and Allah, and Poteriteri in southern ers. This group desires the highest standard of facilities Fiordland. In its most recent strategic business plan (De- possible, consistent with a backcountry experience, and partment of Conservation 1998), the Department of Conser- have become the dominant users of some of the Great Walks vation identified the designation of these two wilderness (such as the Milford, Kepler, Routeburn, and Greenstone areas as a priority objective. Tracks), as well as a number of lesser-known Top Tracks (such as the Dusky Track, , Rees-Dart Cir- cuit, and the Copland Valley Track). On the other hand, Issues Resolved in Management of many backcountry adventurers are New Zealanders on Te Wahipounamu______holiday who are now choosing more remote backcountry sites to avoid the sites that are popular with overseas In the past 20 years, a remarkable number of resource and backpackers. management issues have been resolved in the South-West, each conferring stronger protection or allowing greater con- servation value to be accumulated within the protected areas. Some of the major achievements have been:

USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000 165 1. Stopping the raising of and Lake Issues Still to be Resolved Within Wanaka for electricity generation. 2. The incorporation of the mineralized Red Hills area Te Wahipounamu______within Mt Aspiring National Park. In a natural area as large as Te Wahipounamu, it is not 3. The protection of the lowland podocarp rainforests of surprising that there are still a number of policy and man- South Westland from logging. agement issues that need to be resolved, including: 4. The gradual phasing-out of grazing from the Mavora Lakes area and the valleys radiating from Mt Aspiring 1. The environmental threat of a “Haast-Hollyford Road.” National Park. 2. Forging of a working partnership with the Ngai Tahu 5. The settlement of the Ngai Tahu Tribe’s claim for iwi Tribe. redress of rights under the Treaty of Waitangi. 3. Peserving “natural quiet,” which is often disrupted by 6. The establishment of a regime for the management of tourist aircraft. tourist concessionaires. 4. Establishing a marine component to the World Heri- 7. The preparation of Regional Conservation Manage- tage Area, and better protection of the coastal “wilderness.” ment Strategies for the whole of Te Wahipounamu, provid- 5. Reducing populations of introduced animal pests to ing the basis for integrated management by the Department ecologically acceptable levels. of Conservation. 6. Addressing the future of cattle grazing licenses within 8. Formal protection of Hooker-Landsborough and Oliv- a few remaining valleys. ine Wilderness Areas. The proposal from some sectors of local government and The Ngai Tahu Tribe was a major partner in the nomina- the tourist industry, for a 120 km toll road linking Haast tion of the World Heritage site proposal to UNESCO and, with the (near Milford Sound), is the most indeed, the name “Te Wahipounamu” was their suggestion overt threat to the integrity of Te Wahipounamu and its because it was a traditional name that embraced the whole wilderness. It is an issue that seems, for the present, to have South-West. The settlement of their “Treaty of Waitangi” had its teeth pulled by the combination of New Zealand’s claim has a number of interesting management implications stringent resource management legislation, the cost of con- for the World Heritage Area: struction, the measures required to mitigate environmental effects, and the weight of adverse public opinion. It would 1. The name of Mount Cook (fig. 6) will become “Aoraki/ seriously impinge on the buffer to the Olivine Wilderness Mt Cook,” and 88 other topographic features (most of them Area if it were to be constructed. in the World Heritage Area) will, in the future, have dual Protecting the “natural quiet” of wilderness has become a Maori/English names. significant issue in Te Wahipounamu, where a burgeoning 2. The title for Aoraki will be returned to the Ngai Tahu industry based on tourist aircraft overflights is raising Tribe who will, in turn, gift Aoraki to the people of New tensions between backcountry visitors (RS, BCC, and BCA Zealand “…as an enduring symbol of the Ngai Tahu’s com- groups) and frontcountry visitors (SST, ON, and DV groups). mitment to co-manage with the Crown, areas of high histori- Air access policies are set down in Department of Conserva- cal, cultural and conservation value.” tion regional Conservation Management Strategies; how- 3. The Tribe will be given rights of access and temporary ever, overflights are not able to be regulated by these occupancy for the gathering of traditional foods and other documents. Department of Conservation and civil aviation materials.

Figure 6—Mount Cook National Park is a key visitor attraction within the Te Wahipounamu World Heri- tage Area. The Park is also impor- tant to the Ngai Tahu Tribe, the Maori occupiers at the time of Eu- ropean settlement of New Zealand in 1840. In settling a claim by Ngai Tahu under the Treaty of Waitangi, the New Zealand government has decided to change the name of the Park (and the highest peak in New Zealand) to Aoraki/Mt Cook, and to recognize the future role of Ngai Tahu as comanagers of the Park. Les Molloy

166 USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-14. 2000 regulatory authorities are working with air transport opera- Brown Kiwi (Apteryx “Okarito Brown”)—a rare ground nest- tors to resolve this matter in ways that accommodate the ing bird that is confined to a relatively small area of lowland needs of all parties, but there is no universal solution yet in forest otherwise occupied by many introduced pests. In this sight. situation, research has determined that just two pests, The two most important biodiversity conservation issues stoats (Mustela ermina) and Australian brushtail possum, remaining are (1) the lack of marine protection in the fiords are critical threats to the survival of Okarito Brown Kiwis. and along the south coast of Fiordland, and (2) the continu- Control measures against these two pests have significant ing need for control of the wild, introduced animals that conservation benefits when integrated with species-specific negatively impact the flora and fauna of the World Heritage conservation measures. Area. The marine environment of Te Wahipounamu is not pro- tected by the National Park or Conservation Area status of Conclusions______the adjoining land. In Fiordland National Park, the marine The vast wilderness resource within Te Wahipounamu ecosystem within the fiords is unique in the world for the can now be said to be under sound management with regard combined effects of freshwater and saltwater circulation, to the provision of opportunity and the regulation of impacts and the diversity of warm-, cold-, and deep-water marine from visitors. The integrity of New Zealand’s greatest wild species. Added to this is the unparalleled wilderness value of landscape has been protected from human exploitation—no the 1,900 kilometers of unprotected, wild, uninhabited coast- easy task. The designation of further strict wilderness areas line within the sheltered environment of the fiords. within the World Heritage Area is a definite prospect. Protection of the World Heritage Area coastal and marine There are a number of remaining concerns for biodiversity environments has been complicated by a set of circum- conservation, especially from the impacts of introduced stances similar to those regarding the protection of “natural animal pests. In many respects, this remains the single quiet.” Regional Conservation Management Strategies can greatest threat to the natural diversity of Te Wahipounamu. advocate for protection of the coastal and marine environ- It could be argued that the protected marine ecosystems ment, but they are dependent on partnerships with commu- adjacent to Te Wahipounamu are not sufficient to provide a nities, other agencies, iwi Maori, and the support of other representative marine component to the World Heritage statutory planning documents. Area. However, regional Conservation Management Strat- In the case of Te Wahipounamu, two Marine Reserves egies have set priorities and goals for biodiversity conserva- have been established in the Fiords, and additional areas tion, including protection of the coastal and marine systems, have been identified for protection. These measures are as and these will be systematically implemented. yet insufficient for ecosystem protection, and more consider- There is a question as to the need for a process that might ation needs to be given to other protection measures. Some better integrate the four Conservation Management Strat- recent measures have been taken to protect the wilderness egies that relate to Te Wahipounamu. These strategies are values of the “wild” coastline by coordinating the statutory the principal means of achieving the conservation and pro- policies of the Department of Conservation (Mainland tection goals of the World Heritage Area, but they are Southland Conservation Management Strategies) and Lo- essentially stand-alone documents. It remains to be seen if cal Government ( Plan). the statutory framework that underpins the protected sta- Introduced herbivores and predators are having a severe tus of the area is sufficient to ensure that management can impact on the natural diversity of Te Wahipounamu. Red achieve all of the conservation outcomes required to ensure deer are widespread; other browsing mammals such as the continuing integrity of Te Wahipounamu as a Natural wapiti, fallow deer, goat, and chamois have restricted distri- Heritage property butions, but the combination of these animals threatens the integrity of the forest and alpine ecosystems. In the north and west of the World Heritage Area, the Australian brushtail References ______possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) has caused severe mortal- ity in montane hardwood forests, and introduced mustelids Department of Conservation. 1996. Visitor strategy. Wellington, and rodents have had a widespread and devastating impact NZ: Department of Conservation. 60 p. on indigenous fauna. Several species have become extinct Department of Conservation. 1998. Restoring the dawn chorus: DOC Strategic Business Plan. 64 p. and others are endangered or in decline. Molloy, L. F. 1983. Wilderness recreation—the New Zealand expe- The Department of Conservation has had to find innova- rience. In: Molloy, L. F., ed. Wilderness recreation in New Zealand: tive ways to deal with these threats to stave off further proceedings of the 1981 wilderness conference. Wellington, NZ: extinctions and loss of biodiversity. Historically, the thrust Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand. 142 p. Molloy, L. F. 1992. Te Wahipounamu—an approach to the interpre- has been toward species management, but in recent years, tation of World Heritage Wilderness. In: Tabata, R. S. [and new initiatives have focused on integrated programs tar- others]. Proceedings of the Heritage Interpretation International geted at the critical pests within priority places. This method 3rd Global Congress, November 1991, Honolulu. University of has required conservation biologists and ecologists to iden- Hawaii: 286-9. tify places where natural diversity is greatest and where Reedy, M. C.; Doole, P. 1992. Te Wahipounamu—options for inte- grated management of South West New Zealand World Heritage specifically targeted interventions will have the greatest Area. In: Proceedings of the Australia, New Zealand, Pacific, outcomes for conservation. World Heritage Wilderness Managers Forum, October 1991, An example of an integrated program is the management Tasmania. Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. interventions directed at conserving the endangered Okarito

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